Objective of the workshop:

To bring together the scientific, technical and industry persons in the country involved and interested in SKA to discuss plans for getting ready for the construction phase of the SKA Phase 1.

Background:

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the next generation radio telescope, has completed the detailed design phase, and will start the construction from mid-2021 onwards. India has made significant contributions during the design phase and has been allocated roles in specific work packages for the construction phase, including a leadership role for the Observatory Management and Control (OMC) work package. Furthermore, plans for a SKA regional data centre in India are being finalised, alongwith growing the activities of the scientific community. India's participation in the construction phase of the SKA will have a significant role of Indian industry. Though there has been a good amount of interaction with industry, and a working model for industry interaction has been built up, more work is needed to inform and attract potential industry partners in other areas of SKA construction, that India will be participating in.

The SKA-India Consortium (SKA-IC) has been coordinating the overall effort of SKA related activities in India. To support and grow these activities, there have been ​five SKA-related workshops in the past ASI meetings which have proved very useful in bringing together the Indian community for participation in the SKA. These were:

(a) ASI 2014 (IISER, Mohali) where the various science working groups were formed,

(b) ASI 2015 (NCRA, Pune) where the SKA India consortium was formed,

(c) ASI 2018 (OU, Hyderabad) where the science requirements for the SKA and a science DPR were discussed,

(d) ASI 2019 (Christ, Bengaluru) where the technical capabilities and commitments of various Indian institutions and industries were discussed,

(e) ASI 2020 (IISER, Tirupati), where the plans to set up and operate an SKA Regional Centre in India was presented and discussed.

All of these SKA workshops at the ASI meetings saw a good response and have proved extremely beneficial in attracting the participants and growing the SKA India family.

Rationale:

In order to prepare for the upcoming SKA construction phase, a significant amount of planning is needed on various fronts, and we intend to use the 2021 ASI SKA India workshop as a major platform for doing this. The following are the main goals for our workshop:

(i) To disseminate widely the current status of the SKA project, the plans for the construction phase, and India's projected role in the same -- over a 10-year window of 2021-2030.

(ii) To update the SKA science case from India, and review science efforts by the Indian community using / with the SKA pathfinders and precursors, with special emphasis on participation by the next / younger generation.

(iii) To refine the plans for a prototype data centre, leading towards the full scale SKA regional centre over the next 10 years.

(iv) To attract and familiarise the technical community and industry partners with the plans for India's role in the construction phase, as well as with the procedures that will be followed.

Participants: Since the workshop will be completely in an online mode, we expect (and would like) a large number of participants to join, over 100 at least.

(i) It is expected that scientific and technical persons from the different institutions who are already involved or interested in the SKA related activities will attend this workshop. We will make a special push to attract the younger generation, including the students.

(ii) Furthermore, we will invite a large number of participants from the industries who have interest in one or more of the SKA construction work areas that India will be involved in.

(iii) We will consider inviting a few key members from the SKA Organisation, as it will be useful.

Schedule of the workshop (youtube links provided for all the talks):

Building the SKA: the Indian perspective

Pre-workshop special session: February 17, 2021 (Wednesday) 15:00 - 18:00 IST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyJyinTSKTI&list=PLEImxBzjA3Iqeyo7-AYFz5c5Pqi1jP4Yp

Chair: Yogesh Wadadekar

This special session will provide an introduction to the SKA and describe current status and future plans. Will set the context for the detailed discussions on the 18th.

15:00 - 15:10 : “Welcome and opening comments” (Yogesh Wadadekar)

15:10 - 15:50 : “Overview of the SKA” (Phil Diamond) https://youtu.be/RyJyinTSKTI

15:50 - 16:30 : “Building the SKA : Technical aspects & Construction plans” (Joe McMullin) https://youtu.be/U68WjxkR0eo

16:30 - 17:10 : “Overview of Indian perspective” (Yashwant Gupta) https://youtu.be/-pBVCbWn9_Q

17:10 - 18:00 : “Discussion and wrap-up” (Moderator : Dipankar Bhattacharya) https://youtu.be/-pBVCbWn9_Q

ASI 2021 Workshop 3: SKA in India: Preparing for building the SKA

February 18, 2021 (Thursday) 09:30 - 18:00 IST

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSC4opLwQcI&list=PLEImxBzjA3Ir7LI5B9_Jg0t67OFKsAoeY

09:30 - 10:55 : Science with SKA precursors and pathfinders (Chair: Tirthankar Roy Choudhury)

09:30 - 09:45 : “Understanding the quiet Sun: transients and their importance in coronal heating” (Surajit Mondal) https://youtu.be/GSC4opLwQcI

09:45 - 10:00 : “Surprising low frequency behaviour of a main sequence pulsar” (Barnali Das) https://youtu.be/NGBkxmK2mOo

10:00 - 10:15 : “HI 21 cm Emission from Galaxies at z~1” (Aditya Chowdhury) https://youtu.be/dZRr07mebdw

10:15 - 10:30 : “Understanding the deep low-frequency radio sky with uGMRT - a SKA India Pathfinder ” (Arnab Chakraborty) https://youtu.be/mP3AbO9okQo

10:30 - 10:45 : “Implications of the z ~ 5 Ly-alpha forest for observing the 21-cm power spectrum of EoR” (Janakee Raste) https://youtu.be/WZoWVAPHSxI

10:45 - 10:55 : “Update on the SKA data challenge” (Nirupam Roy) https://youtu.be/aO8oiFSuTts

10:55 - 11:05 : Break

11:05 - 12:30 : Engineering & technical session (Chair: Yashwant Gupta)

11:05 - 11:40 : “Indian participation in software & data processing based packages” (Yogesh Wadadekar) https://youtu.be/1x9qXPFG1GM

11:40 - 12:15 : “Indian participation in RF & digital hardware based packages” (T. Prabu) https://youtu.be/mbezRo_FopA

12:15 - 12:30 : Discussion https://youtu.be/_iHQLhjx_mA

12:30 - 14:00 : Lunch break

14:00-14:30 : “Public outreach activities for the SKA” (Niruj Mohan) https://youtu.be/hl3Kulep-zA and https://youtu.be/v-09OzD9WaA

14:30 - 15:55 : Session on SKA India regional data centre (Chair: Nirupam Roy)

14:30 - 14:55 : “Plans for an Indian SKA Regional Centre” (Yogesh Wadadekar) https://youtu.be/Kr13CdIpUys

14:55 - 15:30 : “Accelerating Research through HPC Hardware & Software” (Utkarsh Joshi, Revati Kulkarni and Kiran Narkhede) https://youtu.be/Yditg1DCgT4 and https://youtu.be/HYb7y8nVon8

15:30 - 16:00 : “AI / ML Techniques in Big Data” (Rajesh Tamhane and Shraddha Surana) https://youtu.be/HOeDifLA8IE and https://youtu.be/7fIZYkaPoJo

16:00 - 16:10 : Break

16:10 - 17:30 : Industry information and interaction session (Chair: Dipankar Bhattacharya)

16:10 - 16:25 : “The SKA perspective” (Vivek Mohile and Snehal Valame) https://youtu.be/lcWetOy0lV4 and https://youtu.be/NkGTWhB1xro

16:25 - 16:40 : “The Indian viewpoint” (Yashwant Gupta) https://youtu.be/4s2YsD-xRCQ

16:40 - 16:55 : “Specific plans and prospects for software & data analysis work packages” (Yogesh Wadadekar) https://youtu.be/oofTrm8qZ7c

16:55 - 17:10 : “Specific plans and prospects for RF & digital hardware work packages” (T. Prabu) https://youtu.be/khI0FZUUJFE

17:10 - 17:40 : Discussion and Q&A with industry representatives https://youtu.be/0jIMIoZpLFw

17:40 - 18:00 : Workshop wrap-up session, to be led by Dipankar Bhattacharya

SKA-related posters exhibited in ASI 2021

1. SKA and India: Overview

2. SKA-India Consortium

3. SKA: Interesting Facts

4. How will SKA be better than today's radio telescopes?

5. How does SKA compare with the world's biggest radio telescopes?

For more details, please write to skaindia@ncra.tifr.res.in